Karen is an 18 year old mother of a one year old girl, who working two jobs to support them. Her world was turned upside down when her daughter was in Oakland’s Children’s Research Hospital for a month and she had to quit her jobs! Her daughter was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy and Karen has had to depend on her own father to provide their housing and transportation, at the risk of him losing his job to be able to miss so much work. Her having her own car has taken the burden of transportation off her father in order for him to support the family while allowing her to take care of her daughter!

]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17582014-10-27T23:17:18Z2014-10-27T23:14:42ZJenny and her family were homeless and had just lost their car. They are a family of six, with only two of school age and one who had open heart surgery at six months old. Living in a hotel and with no way to get their kids to school or her husband to work or her baby to his doctor’s appointments in San Francisco, they were in desperate need of a car!

]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17572014-10-27T23:17:12Z2014-10-27T23:13:26ZColeen and her family have had an incredibly difficult two years. Her husband was diagnosed with MS and she was diagnosed with a rare type of breast cancer, which she developed during her pregnancy with their fifth child (their first day together). After many months and types of treatment, she is no closer to a cure! During all this, the house they were renting went into foreclosure and they had to move, while Colleen was undergoing chemo and radiation and her husband had to take six weeks off of work to take care of the family as Coleen couldn’t even hold her new baby!

]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17532014-10-27T23:17:06Z2014-10-27T23:12:50ZBrad is a student at SRJC who has recently won custody of his 15 year old daughter. In January he took her to get some eye glasses because she complained of not being able to see. He was sent to a specialist in San Francisco, who referred him to another specialist. A week later, there were sent for an emergency MRI, and after two additional MRI’s she was sent into brain surgery on Valentine’s Day. The surgery went well, but there is still a mass on her brain which they follow with tests every two weeks in San Francisco. After her sight not improving, they have updated us that her condition is incurable and they must just live with it…
]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17512014-10-27T23:17:01Z2014-10-27T23:06:12ZAnna is a young mother of four. She has recently had to move back in with her parents. The woman who nominated her wrote that Anna “is not on welfare, she refuses to take advantage of government assistance and works every day and sometimes weekends and overtime to support her children. She is a proud, responsible hard-working mother…” Prior to winning the van from G&C, she would have to seek the help of others to take her children to school and herself to work.
]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17492014-10-27T23:16:56Z2014-10-27T23:05:13ZDesiree’s husband left her and their two daughters after eight years of marriage. He left her with $45,000 of debt and a mortgage payment she can barely make. She makes $1,000 a month and often has to decide between bills and groceries! Her parents, who are both on disability, have recently moved in with her. Her mother has a brain tumor that causes her to have seizures (with her first one, she went into a coma for ten days) and her father just had vertebrae replacement surgery. Her daughters are in first grade and preschool and they have no way to get around…their borrowed car, which could only be driven in third gear, broke down about a month ago.

They now have a great Elantra with only 40,000 miles on it to get to school, the grocery store, etc. As she says in her letter, “Thanks to Gene Crozat and all of G&C Autobody me and my children have a brighter future and the beginning of a better life. This car that you are giving my family is more than just a car, it’s hope. I haven’t seen my children have such big smiles in a long time and I haven’t smiled like that in a very long time. Gene has given me hope and faith again.”

]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17482014-10-27T23:04:24Z2014-10-27T23:04:24ZRenee is a grandmother mother and grandmother who shares her two bedroom apartment with her two daughters and three grandsons, sleeping on the couch and helping care for the boys. She also cares for her gather since her mother passed away last year. “It has been really difficult to get to my dad’s house and appointments. I have to get my older grandchildren from school while bringing the baby with me and sometimes the buses don’t run late enough.”
]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17472014-10-27T22:56:01Z2014-10-27T22:56:01ZDavid and Shawna have five children and one on the way. David works “two jobs , always about 72 hours a week…as a chef who recently graduated from the SRJC culinary program. I don’t even make enough money to pay the bills, let alone afford a car to get my family around.“ Without even a house phone, he and Shawna communicate via email while she stays home with the kids all day!
]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17442014-10-27T22:31:15Z2014-10-27T22:31:15ZDondi had two letters written on his behalf, one by his 14 year old daughter! He is a father of four children, from 10 to 14 years old. He was a Marine and was shot twice and blown out of a Humvee serving our country! He recently broke his back and required back surgery. Unable to work, he had to sell their car. As his daughter says, “My dad is an amazing man…he served his country and now he is raising us four all by himself.”
]]>0gandcautohttp://gandcauto.wpengine.comhttp://gandcauto.wpengine.com/?p=17422014-10-27T22:28:57Z2014-10-27T22:28:57ZLilly was nominated by her boss! She and her husband have two small sons and one very unreliable car to get Peter to work, while Lilly has to get the boys to childcare and then to work via bus. After caring for Peter’s father, who had terminal cancer and sister with cerebral palsy, losing their house and filing bankruptcy, they can’t even get a small loan to buy a cheap car. Her boss wrote, “Sometimes I notice that she doesn’t have a meal to eat at lunch…she could easily be in the welfare system, but she chooses to work!”
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